Functional Medicine determines how and why illnesses occur. The root cause of a condition is sought for Optimal Health by restoring disordered functions. Our current health care system and conventional medicine diagnose a patient with a disease. The treatment plan is then focused on symptom relief with little thought to the root cause. Due to insurance/Medicare requirements, providers have little time to spend on the whole patient understanding all of the many specific contributing factors.

Functional Medicine addresses the underlying cause of the disease and uses a systems-based approach that dives into root causes. The goal is to look at the individual based on genetic and environmental uniqueness such as lifestyle factors, nutrition, stress, and physical activity. There are also special labs that may be part of an individual’s personalized plan to obtain a better understanding of the deeper cause of their illness. It is patient-centered versus disease-centered. Optimal health is the ultimate goal, not merely the absence of disease.

Having been trained in conventional medicine, I understand how segmented this approach can be and how frustrating it is for patients to not feel heard and most often to only be prescribed medication. My interest in functional medicine began while seeing patients in the clinic and wanting to help them find deeper answers to their disease process and help explore alternative ways to address their problems. In addition, the loss of my parents both at an early age placed me on a lifetime journey to seek ways to avoid the diseases that I am genetically set up for.

As a Nurse Practitioner who worked on the front lines of Covid for two years, I saw the devastation of what can happen to a body that lives in a chronic inflammatory state with a suboptimal immune system. Functional Medicine was the next logical step in my professional growth to offer alternative solutions to my patients.

If you are tired of feeling sick and tired or you want to move to the next level of your best health, give me a call. I would love to talk to you about your specific situation.